Cook County joins push to limit sugar in soft drinks

Tribune illustration

Tribune illustration

Monica EngTribune reporter

The Cook County Department of Public Health today joined a national coalition of advocates, scientists and health officials in petitioning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to set limits on sugar in soft drinks to combat obesity.

Led by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., the coalition included health departments from Los Angeles, Portland and Kansas City to Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia — but not Chicago.

Michael Jacobson, CPSI’s executive director, said he didn’t ask for the city’s support because of Chicago’s close relationship with soft drink companies. Chicago has accepted millions of dollars in recent months from the nation’s biggest soda manufacturers to fund health programs for city employees and fitness classes in Chicago parks.

“Given their soft-drink deals I thought they would be very unlikely to support a measure that the industry would strongly oppose,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson said he did reach out to the Cook County Health Department because it had “shown an interest in the past in public health measures to reduce consumption of sugary drinks.”

Gina Massuda Barnett, director of chronic disease prevention for the Cook County Department of Public Health, said the county supported the petition because of high obesity rates in the state and the increasing connection between obesity and sugar-sweetened beverages.

In a statement, the Chicago Department of Health said it was reviewing the petition and noted that the city had launched several healthy food initiatives, including revamping the offerings in vending machines on public property.

“Given all of our work, (we) obviously support efforts to increase access to healthy choices and improve the health and well-being of people across the country,” the statement said.

The coalition’s petition, signed by dozens of scientists including the nutrition chair of the Harvard School of Public Health, is part of a broad campaign by health advocates to trim the nation’s waistlines.

Sugar-sweetened drinks are a significant source of extra calories in the U.S. diet and are closely linked with weight gain, which often accompanies serious and costly illness such as diabetes and heart disease.

In the U.S., more than two-thirds of adults and nearly one-third of children aged 2 to 19 are overweight or obese.

The coalition is asking the FDA to set a safe level for added sugars in beverages and to require that the limits be phased in over several years. The agency said it received the petition and will respond.

But if history holds true, the petition on soda will not result in swift government action. Jacobson said the CSPI’s first petition on trans fats was filed in 1994 and the FDA didn’t enact rules until 2003.

Another goal of the petition is to push soda makers to move faster toward lower-calorie drinks, Jacobson said.

“I expect these things to take a long time, especially when there is huge industry opposition,” he said. “But we want to get the coversation started. Even if the FDA is slow to act I think the petition and the publicity around it will spur industry to work a little harder to come up with alternatives” to highly sugared drinks.

The American Beverage Association and other industry groups have often succeeded in fighting efforts to reduce sugary drink consumption via regulation or taxes. They say the industry is being unfairly blamed for the nation's obesity crisis.

“Everyone has a role to play in reducing obesity levels — a fact completely ignored in this petition,” the association said in a statement.

Americans consume an average of 18 to 23 teaspoons of added sugars each day, according to data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's 300 to 400 calories worth of added sugars daily, significantly more than experts consider healthy.

A typical 20-ounce bottle of soda contains about 16 teaspoons of sugars, often from high-fructose corn syrup. The American Heart Association advises consuming no more than six teaspoons of added sugars per day for women and no more than nine teaspoons for men.

A Tufts University review of studies published over 17 years found that consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was the most consistent dietary factor associated with weight gain.

The American Beverage Association challenges such links, saying obesity rates have risen even as U.S. consumption of full-calorie sodas has declined. The most reliable government health survey figures, however, show a leveling off of national obesity rates accompanying the decline in full-calorie soda consumption.

Americans on average drink 44.6 gallons of soft drinks each year, down from a peak of 54 gallons in 1998, according to Beverage Digest. Diet drinks, water and teas currently account for a bigger portion of the soda industry's sales than sugary drinks, driving a decline in the overall intake of added sugars.